in one of the bay area's biggest cities. kpix 5 linda yee joins us with their bright idea. >> yes, but it turned out to be not so good. and they also picked some of the streets and the neighborhoods where there is a main artery, that proved to be a problem. 900 street lights were turned off saving the city nearly $100,000 a year in energy bills. but when darkness fell, some people felt there were prisoners in their own neighborhood. >> it is kind of scary because you can't always see what's going on. and because we are, you know, we don't want to be too far from the house because it was dark. >> reporter: the blackout caused problems. >> we have seen a rise in graffiti in certain areas. a lot of property crime. one thing that the streets are relying on is streets from the property. it's not acceptable. we need street lights to get turned back on. >> reporter: they will eventually bring all the lights back on. they will be fazed in at around it 00 -- 200 lights a moh. >> we have a rising crime problem. we need to do everythin